


Lost Souls in Revelry

by plinys



Series: ABC Fic Challenge [15]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-07-13
Packaged: 2018-04-09 05:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4336052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There had been times before, when the going got tough, or when the world went to shit, that Skye just ran away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost Souls in Revelry

**Author's Note:**

> For my ABC fic challenge the letter is O for "Out"

There had been times before, when the going got tough, or when the world went to shit that Skye just ran away. Usually it was skipping out of yet another foster home right before her social worker showed up, or ditching the latest guy in a series of big mistakes before the sun rose.

It was harder now, SHIELD seemed to have eyes everywhere, and her van which used to provide a sanctuary had been lost the first time there turned out to be traitors all around her. Though that didn’t mean that she couldn’t convince her doctor (or best friend, technically) to write a note off to Coulson demanding that Skye had some time off.

“Where are you going?”

She doesn’t startle at the noise like she might have before SHIELD, but she does turn around and give him a less than pleased look as she adjusts the strap of her duffle bag.

Hunter looks almost just as bad as she feels. There’s a smile on his face, the usual snarky one, but there are also bags under his eyes, leading her to believe that perhaps that smile is a bit more false than originally suspected. She supposes it makes sense, he’s had a rough time these past few months as well. Three dead friends and two traitorous ones (and then not again) could leave anybody a bit out of it.

Thinking of that, she lets the defensive tension she’d been encasing herself in fade a bit, “Out of here.”

“A bit of a vacation?”

“Something like that,” she shrugs, and before she can think too hard on what it all means, Skye takes a small breath and offers, “Want to come?”

This time the smile on his face twitches a bit, maybe becoming more real, “Did you have anywhere in mind?”

Skye shakes her head. Her main goal had really been to get out of SHIELD HQ. Somewhere that she could look around the corners and not expect to see ghosts of the friends she’d lost in her peripherals. She’d hadn’t planned any further than that.

“I’ve got a place, it’s not much.”

“Not much sounds perfect.”

\---

One flight, and a subway ride later, she realizes he wasn’t exactly exaggerating when he’d described the place as _not much_.

The apartment that Hunter had led her to looked as if the door hadn’t been opened in months, and the inside was not much better. It was sparsely decorated: a threadbare couch, an old school tv on a cardboard box, and a fridge that was completely empty seemed to be the most of it. She was certain there was a bed tucked away behind one of the closed doors, but honestly couldn’t be sure.

Her fingers brush through the thin layer of dust coating nearly everything almost absentmindedly, as Hunter speaks up, “I did warn you. Look, if you hate it, we can get a hotel somewhere or-“

“No, this is,” Skye pauses, not sure what word she’s exactly looking for, shrugs, and just says “It’s not what I expected, but I think I like it.”

“What were you expecting?”

“Something lavish and extravagant, with the way you talk about money, I always figured you’d be the type to blow it on some penthouse you never visited,” Skye explains.

“I tried that once,” he admits, “With Bobbi actually, but this is much better. It’s not much, but it’s an escape. I’d fuck off back here when whatever job Izzy got for us turned out to be shit, or when things got too serious for my liking. I guess, I haven’t been back in a while.”

There’s something in the air, a quiet hush, and Skye knows that _this_ would be the moment to talk if she wanted to. She could sit on Hunter’s couch and confess just how awful everything has been these past few months, and he’d listen – hell, he’d probably even understand. But at the same time, she could laugh it all off, play up some joke and he’d never push.

Perhaps that had been the reason she’d come here after all.

In the end, she saves talking for later, and instead flicks the dust off of her fingers pointedly, saying, “Really? I couldn’t tell at all? I mean, seriously Hunter, too cheap to hire a maid?”

“You know me.”

“Do I now?”

\---

The time for confessions comes later, when their eating Chinese takeout from the restaurant down the road (because neither of them can cook for the life of them and she’s pretty sure the microwave is broken) while sitting on the roof of his apartment complex.

“Sometimes I wish I’d never joined SHIELD,” she says, casually, as though remarking upon the weather, before taking a bite of her orange chicken. “I think about running away and never coming back until the world makes sense again, and,” she pauses, as any illusion of being casual seems to drop away, “and I though the that with the Inhumans I had that., I had a place that was mine, where I fit in and where everything was going to be okay, but it wasn’t.”

“Well, I’m terrible at advice, so bear with me,” Hunter replies, a moment later, “But if that’s what you need to do, then I say do it.”

“What?”

“Skye, the world’s going to suck ass, a lot of the time. To be honest, I’ve spent a good deal of mine running when the going gets tough,” he admits. “But there will be times where you need to take some time for yourself, to say fuck being a responsible adult, to drink cheap beer and eat takeout, and when you do, I’ll be here. Or well, I’ll probably be at the base, but you can come here or not, whatever just let me know, I’ll even leave a key under a rock or something if you want you’re good with those right?”

“Thank you,” Skye says, bumping her shoulders into his lightly, “Even if your joke was terrible, and you should be ashamed of yourself.”

“It made you smile, so it can’t be that terrible.”  

Her fingers come up to her lips, finding his words true, “Oh, huh.”

“You’re welcome.”


End file.
